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Sammy Hagar holds nothing back as he brings his party to Greenville

This article is presented in it's original form without any sensational fake headline.

Sammy Hagar holds nothing back as he brings his party to Greenville

The Red Rocker is coming to Greenville.

Sammy Hagar, best known for his tenure in Van Halen, his solo hit “I Can’t Drive 55” and his latest supergroup Chickenfoot, will rock the annual Catfish Extravaganza at Greenville Lions Park Saturday.

Hagar will be performing at the event with The Wabos, a band he created and toured with for five years after his era with Van Halen. The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer insists that after Van Halen he wanted to start a band “that was going to be all about fun and not such a big deal about everything.” That band was The Wabos.

Because of his financial situation, Hagar admits that lately he’s been able to treat music as a hobby. Besides selling millions of records and performing globally, Hagar also owns Cabo Wabo Cantina, Sammy’s Beach Bar and Grill and Sammy’s Beach Bar Rum. He also sold his Cabo Wabo Tequila brand for $100 million in 2011, something Hagar doesn’t brag about because “it’s a number that scares me to death.” Also in 2011, Hagar’s book “Red: My Uncensored Life in Rock” also reached No. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list. Needless to say, Hagar isn’t just a rock star, he’s an entrepreneur.

Perhaps it’s this success and confidence that has allowed Hagar to reject offers to front major bands such as Aerosmith, Motley Crue and Pantera.

“I’m not interested in joining a band for any other reason other than I love that band and it blows my mind,” Hagar said. “That’s what happened with Van Halen. ... Guys like Steven Tyler (Aerosmith) are irreplaceable because they’re talented and they’re rock stars. Replacing a guy who’s just a rock star and doesn’t have any talent, that’s a lot easier (laughs).”

At this point in his career, Hagar has shown he doesn’t have to perform; he wants to perform, and Greenville serves as his musical playground this weekend.

P-C: You have several projects. Why are The Wabos the right fit for the Catfish Extravaganza?

Hagar: I have Chickenfoot and that’s my serious band. That’s my Van Halen kind of band, you might say, but The Wabos, we play my whole history of music. We play from Montrose through Van Halen and my Red Rocker era to the post-Van Halen era, which was pretty much the lifestyle, beach bum stuff and these are the kind of events that we fit so well in because we go out and throw a party. We’re great musicians and we play great music and we do the songs justice, but the attitude with which we do it is like, hey man, this is a free-for-all. If you want to hear a song, yell it out; hell, we’ll play it. We take an intimate party scene and just expand it to 10,000 or 20,000 people. It just becomes an event where everyone’s having a good time and participates. So, a catfish race? We fit right in (laughs).

P-C: What’s the secret to your longevity in the music business? Is it because you take on so many various musical projects?

Hagar: That’s something that baffles me, and I think it’s just my passion. My talent is pretty good and I’m a hard worker. I’ll outwork anybody. I’ll roll up my sleeves, put on the hard hat, grab my lunch and I’m going to work, but I think it’s the passion and the love for what I do that has kept me in the public eye and they haven’t chewed me up and spit me out like so many people. Everybody knows I’m rich and famous so it’s like, he can’t be doing this for money. … I care about the quality of everything I do whether it’s singing, playing guitar, making rum or opening a restaurant. I just care so much that it’s great. … I was never the darling of the punk scene or even the heavy metal scene. I was just a guy that made some good songs within it and did some good concert performances. I’ve always just been on cruise control, cruising right down the middle somewhere and I’ve never been in and I’ve never been out. I’ve never had to make a comeback. I’ve always just been there and now they can’t get rid of me (laughs).

P-C: Van Halen has been known to have internal difficulties, no matter who the frontman is. What’s your favorite dysfunctional story from your time in Van Halen?

Hagar: The one beautiful dysfunction in Van Halen is that Ed and Al, the two brothers, fight like cats and dogs. Those two guys, you walk into the studio and they’re going at it and you come in and you start trying to figure out what they’re fighting about. Then you find out and you get in the middle of it and next thing you know, they team up and turn on you and you’re like, whoa, hold on here (laughs). So any singer that walks into that one, Dave (Lee Roth), me, Gary Cherone, it doesn’t matter. You’re going to walk into that every time you turn around. They get along on a crazy whacked out level, but as soon as you try to side with one of them, then they team up and that is a real dysfunction (laughs).

P-C: You’ve written hit songs, sold millions of records and you’re in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. At this point, what do you feel is the biggest accomplishment of your career?

Hagar: It was building the Cabo Wabo (Cantina) into a worldwide known brand and then moving that into tequila, which I knew nothing about other than how to drink it (laughs). And then having that actually work because I didn’t plan on that. My career, all my music, from the day I decided I was going to be a singer and guitar player, I planned on being a famous musician and selling millions of records. I didn’t know how I was going to do it necessarily, but it was the plan. When I started Cabo Wabo, there was zero plan. I lived in Mexico part time and I wanted to have a place where I could go play and hang out with my friends, so I built the Cabo Wabo. It was really that simple. … I don’t even know how I did it (laughs). It started with passion and a lot of good luck and really a great idea that I didn’t realize was a great idea.

P-C: You sold the Cabo Wabo tequila brand, correct?

Hagar: I’m never completely out of it because I support it and I still participate a little bit, but I don’t own it anymore. I sold it to Gruppo Compari, who owns Skyy Vodka and a bunch of other brands because I was really in over my head. It kind of got too big and it was stressing me out all the time. There were so many decisions to make and so many weird laws. … I just said I have to get somebody in here who knows what they’re doing. When you’re the No. 2-selling premium tequila in the world and you’re a freakin’ rock star going around playing music and people are calling you at 8 o’clock in the morning like hey, it’s business hours, we need to make some decisions here, I’m going whoa, whoa, I just got to sleep.

P-C: You’ve had a lot of success in music and other endeavors. What has kept you grounded through fame and fortune?

Hagar: I was grounded before that and (selling the Cabo Wabo tequila brand) grounded me even more because it made me realize, and it’s hard to say this to someone’s that struggling to make their house payment, but money doesn’t mean anything. It has nothing to do with happiness. I know some of the most miserable rich people you’ve ever met in your life. My family, we grew up really poor, but we were happy and we had the best time because we had values and passion for life. What’s really kept me grounded is my background and my upbringing and having to work for everything because then when you get it, it brings you so much joy and you want to share it. … Fame and fortune only brings you money. Then once you get tired of spending your money and you have everything you want, you sit there and say I don’t have anything. I’m empty. So you just have to be full to begin with.

“That’s what happened with Van Halen. ... Guys like Steven Tyler (Aerosmith) are irreplaceable because they’re talented and they’re rock stars. Replacing a guy who’s just a rock star and doesn’t have any talent, that’s a lot easier (laughs).”

However, there's a remarkable sense of self-delusion involved with this particular comment by Sammy that makes me wonder if he doesn't actually believe what he says. If he does, then he has no sense of Rock history. If he doesn't then he's being deliberately inflammatory...

Either way that particular statement doesn't reflect well on Sammy, regardless of where you come down on DLR.

“That’s what happened with Van Halen. ... Guys like Steven Tyler (Aerosmith) are irreplaceable because they’re talented and they’re rock stars. Replacing a guy who’s just a rock star and doesn’t have any talent, that’s a lot easier (laughs).”

“That’s what happened with Van Halen. ... Guys like Steven Tyler (Aerosmith) are irreplaceable because they’re talented and they’re rock stars. Replacing a guy who’s just a rock star and doesn’t have any talent, that’s a lot easier (laughs).”

Your act is getting really exhausting.

"I respect that youre passionate about this but what your saying is complete idiocy..."- MF5150 on McDonald's "preying" on young kids.

"He was born a human, he's a horse's ass by proxy."- It's Mike on Eddymon.

Awww, you've got to love Sammy - he saw that the Mike versus Wolf thread was possibly getting out of hand and so he stepped in, in order to take the heat off his best buddy. Bless his wee cotton socks!

I'm FEMALE...Deal with it!

"Whatever you do, wherever you go, there you are..." Edward Van Halen 1986

"You spend the first part of your life trying to make your mark, and the second part just trying to cover up your tracks"... Weesfreewheelin, 2012

"Life's too short to stuff a mushroom"... Shirley Conran, 1975

"You turn if you want to...The LADY is NOT for turning!"...Margaret
Thatcher, 1980

“That’s what happened with Van Halen. ... Guys like Steven Tyler (Aerosmith) are irreplaceable because they’re talented and they’re rock stars. Replacing a guy who’s just a rock star and doesn’t have any talent, that’s a lot easier (laughs).”

And you conveniently leave out what he said just before his comment about Van Halen: Perhaps it’s this success and confidence that has allowed Hagar to reject offers to front major bands such as Aerosmith, Motley Crue and Pantera.

“I’m not interested in joining a band for any other reason other than I love that band and it blows my mind,” Hagar said. "That's what happened with Van Halen."

“I’m not interested in joining a band for any other reason other than I love that band and it blows my mind,” Hagar said. “That’s what happened with Van Halen. ... Guys like Steven Tyler (Aerosmith) are irreplaceable because they’re talented and they’re rock stars. Replacing a guy who’s just a rock star and doesn’t have any talent, that’s a lot easier (laughs).”

It's pretty clear what he's saying there. Even in context of the full interview it comes across as random and unnecessary. If Dave said the same thing I'd expect him to get excoriated for it on this very board, as I'm sure he has in the past.

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